CATANIA (ITALPRESS) – “For decades, southern Italy’s per capita GDP has been just over half that of central and northern Italy, consolidating inequalities and slowing the country’s growth. Closing this gap requires development policies, not just redistributive measures. The economic crisis hit the South hard, but between 2019 and 2023 the region showed signs of recovery, with 3.7 percent growth and a significant reduction in unemployment.” This was said by the governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, in Catania to talk about development in Southern Italy at the traveling event “The Pulse of the Economy – The Mezzogiorno,” stressing that opportunities for the Mezzogiorno can still arise from the current crisis, favored precisely by its position in the South of Europe. Provided, however, that a solution is found to some unresolved knots. “The current geopolitical instability can favor the South, thanks to its stability and proximity to European economic centers. However, to attract capital and enhance local resources, we need to improve the productive environment and strengthen legality. The exodus of young people highlights the need for an environment that enhances talents and a long-term strategic vision,” he pointed out, then shifting attention to the issue of the water crisis and infrastructure: “Infrastructural interventions to increase productive capacity should be prioritized. For example, those to counter the water crisis and strengthen the power grid, to take advantage of the comparative advantage in renewable energy production. Connections should also be improved by strengthening the port and airport system and road and rail networks.”
Preceding Panetta’s speech was the intervention of the director of the Catania branch of the Bank of Italy, Gennaro Gigante: “The governor’s intervention is basic, significant, on a development issue that has so many solutions. These must be brought to the attention of those who must make choices. Ours is a time of choice. Choices must be made and not let things proceed without a strategy. Our area is experiencing possible growth and through many areas, one is infrastructure, which is necessary to climb the gap with the North Central. There are many opportunities, it is necessary to seize them.” “It is a reason of great pride for our city to host a moment of confrontation in which we all have to question ourselves,” added the mayor of the Metropolitan City of Catania Enrico Trantino. “We must abandon the annuities of position that have fossilized the debate and begin to think about what allows us to make the best possible shot (Trantino uses a football metaphor ed.). In recent years we have spent little effort in fulfilling our duties. We need to push on the accelerator through the PNRR and Fsc, Po Fesr and all the other funds available for investment. We need to be focused and proactive toward planning that must become fact and make our children proud to be Catanese, Sicilians and southerners,” Trantino concluded.
– Photo xo5/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
